ADAM Voges shared a dressing room with Justin Langer for the first five years of his career and spent the final five being coached by the former Test opener at Western Australia.

Suffice to say Voges knows Langer better than most, and he is not surprised his former state coach and teammate has helped make Mitchell Marsh vice-captain of the national side alongside Josh Hazlewood. And having witnessed Marsh’s leadership qualities first hand he can see the logic behind the selection panel’s decision too.

When Langer vacated his position as WA and Perth Scorchers head coach to take up the Australia job, Voges was the man to take over. Alongside inheriting one of the country’s most talented squads, he also got a promising young captain in Marsh – a man he had watched grow up and played alongside domestically and internationally for eight years.

“He’s a natural leader and a popular member of any team that he plays in,” Voges told foxsports.com.au, “He’s someone that guys like to follow which is good because he likes to lead from the front.

“He’ll be a really good foil for Painey (Tim Paine), not only tactically but off the field as well and will help him manage the guys. He’s the one that players can go to and speak to if they need anything. Tim’s got a lot on his plate, so any way Mitch and Josh can help out will be really good.”

Although Marsh is yet to captain either WA or the Scorchers under Voges’ watch – he has only coached three One-Day Cup matches so far – his leadership skills have been noticeable to the WA great for a long time now and he took them to a new level during the pre-season.

“He’s brought a few things into the West Australia set-up which have worked incredibly well,” Voges said. “He’s had weekly dinners for all our rookie players so he could get to know them. And for our Saturday morning training sessions he’s introduced a rule that guys weren’t allowed to come by themselves, they have to go pick one of their mates up first.”

Voges is however surprised by the decision to name dual vice-captains, admitting he had not seen that particular gambit coming.

“It’s a change in thought for JL (Langer). I think in the circumstance where JL came in where Steve Smith and David Warner weren’t available, he needed to find some new leaders and felt that this was the best way to go.

“It has surprised me but knowing JL very well it would have been an extremely thorough process to work out what he felt he needed in terms of captains and vice-captains. He wouldn’t have made these decisions lightly.”